Daily Times

KARACHI: At least 2,300 employees of the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA) are without salaries for last two months as authority’s Director Finance has been under custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), it is learnt.

NAB, on November 23, 2016, conducted a raid at STEVTA headquarters at Nipa and arrested its Director Finance Yousaf Baloch for his involvement in more than 1,100 illegal appointments including 31 officials directly on Grades 16 and 17.

With slow pace and lengthy procedure, the STEVTA authorities have not been able to assign the charge of Director Finance to any other officer resulting in the in delay of salaries of more than 2,300 employees of the authority, insiders told Daily Times.

The other reason is that officers are reluctant of taking such an important charge that deals with the issuance of finances to employees and other institutions under various heads, sources cited.

“Usually, the STEVTA employees get salaries on third or fourth day of every month however the delay in the salaries has resulted in serious financial constraints for the employees and their families. The worst affected are the lower grade employees”, sources added.

STEVTA’s managing-director S M Kaleem Makki forwarded a summary to the administrative secretary, Naveed Shaikh, for giving the charge of Director Finance to another officer, however the summary had been returned with few queries.

Later, once again the MD forwarded another summary recommending Mian Abid, an honest officer, to be assigned the additional charge. “The summary has been pending with the Chief Secretary’s office since the past couple of days which is further aggravating the situation”, sources said.

While talking to Daily Times, MD STEVTA S M Kaleem Makki said that he is very much sure that the salaries would be released next week. “The charge of director finance will be given to a senior officer in a day or two after which this serious issue would be resolved.”